Principals

Your Sept. 10 editorial, “The Principals Are the Key,” is to the point and quite correct. Unfortunately, it will not be implemented. The LAUSD’s laid-back corporate culture is not about to change. If LAUSD Supt. Ruben Zacarias would personally make unannounced visits to schools and voice his concerns about the poor performance he would surely find, there might be some response, especially if he would hold his cadre of assistant superintendents as accountable as he would hold the principals. Given his apparent preference for rhetoric over substance, we don’t expect to see him doing any serious checking.

Where do school board members figure in this? They could set the example for Zacarias and his cadre by making their own unannounced visits to schools and publicizing the problems they would be sure to find. It is an old axiom that an organization does well those things that the boss checks. Will these bosses ever do any serious checking?

ELAINE V. FERGUSON

North Hollywood